HONOLULU — The William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa will host a debate entitled "Lt. Watada‘s Case and the Legality of the War in Iraq" between Eric Seitz, attorney for 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, and Professor Michael Lewis, a visiting law professor from Northern Ohio University. The debate will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 27, at the School of Law‘s Moot Court Room from 12:40 to 1:25 p.m. It is free and open to the public.

Today, the Army moved to bring Watada to trial again on charges of missing movement and on conduct unbecoming an officer.

Lewis is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Law School. Before pursuing a legal career, he was a Navy fighter pilot and attended the Navy‘s Fighter Weapons School (Top Gun). Seitz is a graduate of the University of California Boalt Hall School of Law.

This event is the first of a series of debates sponsored by the American Constitution Society and the Federalist Society. On selecting this debate as its inaugural event, Dan Dean, president of the Hawaiʻi chapter of the Federalist Society and second year law student at the UH Mānoa law school, explained "these issues are surely in the forefront of many minds and provoke lively discourse."

For more information about the event, contact Cynthia Quinn, director of communications and external relations at 956-5516.